Salem Tales

Salem Garden Club

One of the more delightful new publications available to local lovers
of history and horticulture is the Salem Garden Club's recently reprinted
booklet, "Old Salem Gardens."

This charming 71-page pamphlet was written by Mable C. H. Pollack and
was originally published by the Salem Garden Club.in May, 1946. The
booklet grew out of a number of papers given by club members at the
organization's tenth anniversary celebration in 1938. It was later expanded
by Mrs. Pollack and her committee to include brief articles about historic
gardens, personal remembrances, illustrations, and even a poem, all
related to local horticulture lore.

"Old Salem Gardens" received rave reviews in a number of important
horticultural and botanical journals. The edition of 500 copies was
quickly sold to individuals and institutions across the country. Among
the purchasers were the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the
Franco-American Museum in Blerancourt, France.

The publication, which won awards from both the state and national
federations of garden clubs, is only one of the many contributions made
by the Salem Garden Club's to the community. For nearly three quarters
of a decade the organization's members have worked for "the advancement
gardening, the development of home grounds, civic beautifying, and aiding
in the protection of forests, wildflowers, and birds."

The Salem Garden Club was organized in January, 1928 and by its second
meeting had already reached its limit of 60 members and 25 associate
members. The following year the club joined the Garden Club Federation
of Massachusetts.

The organization's first decade was one of intense activism. In 1930,
at the suggestion of local architect Phillip Horton Smith, members rebuilt
(and subsequently maintained) the garden at the Brookhouse Home on Derby
Street. For a few years in the 1930s the club also sponsored a garden
contest for children who were active in the Salem summer playground
program. Cash prizes were awarded to the youngsters in each of the city's
wards who were deemed to have grown the best home gardens.

Beginning in 1929, the Salem Garden Club began participating in the
annual spring Flower Show in Boston. By 1938 the organization felt secure
enough to hold its own horticultural show in historic
Hamilton
Hall on Chestnut Street. To raise money for the event, the club
sponsored the city's first garden tour in the summer of 1937. More than
300 people visited the ten gardens, some on Chestnut and Federal Streets
and others in the Salem Common
neighborhood, that were open to the public.

A second, smaller garden tour was held in 1941 to celebrate the opening
of the Gardner-Pingree House
on Essex Street. The Salem Garden Club had taken on the responsibility
for the replanting of the garden at this magnificent Federal mansion
which had been designed by the great Salem architect, Samuel
McIntire.

The beginning of World War II forced the Salem Garden Club to curtail
many of its activities. During the course of the conflict, Mrs. Willis
Ropes, the group's conservation chairperson, provided advice and assistance
to citizens wishing to plant their own war gardens.

The activism of the Salem Garden Club's first decade gradually reappeared
after the war and escalated in the 1970s and 1980s. During that period
the organization was involved in planting and beautifying efforts at
Lappin Park in Town House Square, Winter
island, the Salem Common, and Shaughnessey Hospital. Club members
also planted and maintained gardens in traffic islands on either end
of Washington Street and flower boxes at Salem City Hall and the
Bowditch
House on North Street.

In 1978 the organization began offering an annual scholarship to a
student who planned to study horticulture, the environment, or a related
field.

A few years later, the Salem Garden Club began a tradition of participating
in the annual "Christmas
in Salem" house tour initiated by the Salem Visiting Nurse Association
and now run by Historic
Salem, Inc. The club also took on the yearly task of decorating
a room in the House of Seven Gables for the Christmas season.

In addition to these projects, and to serving as guides and participants
at the Topsfield Fair and the annual "Art in Bloom" show at the Museum
of Fine Arts, club members also built or helped to build gardens at
Camp Naumkeag and at the Custom House at the Salem
Maritime National Historic Site.

The Brookhouse garden, July 2001
(photo: David Hart)

In 1991, the Salem Garden Club "returned to its roots" when it replanted
the long-abandoned gardens at the Brookhouse that its former members
had so lovingly cultivated 60 years earlier.